Many attempts have been made to provide increased fuel efficiency in internal combustion engines. However, most of these efforts have been directed to gasoline engines, which are more common than diesel engines, and which operate on different principles, using different fuels. For example, gasoline engines use gasoline, which contains a high proportion of volatile petrochemical ingredients. Gasoline engines ignite gasoline using spark plugs. By contrast, diesel engines use a heavier fuel with a lower proportion of volatile petrochemical ingredients, and ignite diesel fuel using temperature increases caused by air compression. Both gasoline and diesel engines can be provided with air at ambient pressures ("normally aspirated"), or can be provided with air at greater than ambient pressures through devices that increase the flow of air into the engine, commonly called turbochargers, which are driven by exhaust gasses, or superchargers, which are driven by the engine itself or independently of the engine (all devices for increasing air flow through an engine are hereinafter collectively referred to as "turbochargers").
Many attempts have been made to provide apparatus and methods for increasing the efficiency of internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,681 to Walker discloses a fuel evaporator and economizer for internal combustion engines that takes wasted crank case gases and bubbles them upwards through gasoline to saturate fully those gases with gasoline, and then provides those saturated gases to the fuel supply chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,768 to Rhodes et al. discloses a method and apparatus for bubbling air through gasoline to provide a mixture of air and low boiling point (volatile) gasoline components, and combusting that mixture until pollution control devices have warmed up.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,847 to Fortino discloses a device that bubbles air from a compressor (or drawn through engine vacuum) through a supply of liquid petroleum to be conducted directly to the carburetor or engine intake manifold.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,533 to Zankowski discloses a device that bubbles air through a volatile liquid fuel to reduce carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. This device oxidizes exhaust products by thermal oxidation, without further combustion or afterburning, and uses small apertures to form small bubbles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,801 to Rose et al. discloses a device that bubbles exhaust gases through fuel to heat and vaporize the fuel before mixing it with air at the entrance to the intake manifold. The engine then burns only vaporized fuel and not liquid fuel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,820 to Jiminez discloses a device that vaporizes gasoline using cavitation. When greater power is needed, this device mixes partially vaporized fuel and air with the gasoline vapor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,584 to Davis discloses a fuel tank heating system for warming fuel before it is delivered to an engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,537 to Calkins et al. discloses an apparatus for preventing freeze up of a pressure regulator valve in a liquefied petroleum fuel system.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,357,947 to Gerson discloses a fuel feed system for natural gasolines and other high vapor pressure fuels to overcome operating difficulties at low temperatures.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,779 to Newkirk discloses an internal combustion engine powered by a gaseous fuel such as hydrogen.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,688 to Grainger discloses an anti-pollution gasified liquid fuel system in which air is bubbled through a liquid fuel to produce a gaseous fuel which is fed directly to an internal combustion engine or burned in a steam boiler producing steam to operate a turbine, a reciprocating steam engine or any other steam actuated device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,925 to Hoppie et al. discloses an apparatus and method for compressive heating of fuel to achieve hypergolic combustion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,979 to Hogenson discloses an in-tank fuel line heater.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,356 to Naylor discloses a vaporized fuel system for internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,946 to Sandford et al. discloses a fuel supply for internal combustion engines that includes a vessel to provide fuel vapor and a nozzle to mix the vapor with air.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,718 to Linder discloses a combustion control system for internal combustion engines that includes a novel spark plug having a precombustion chamber in which a butane/air mixture is injected.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,351 to Lewis et al. discloses a vapor-accelerated combustion fuel system that produces and meters a constant supply of volatile gasoline vapors into the cylinders of an internal combustion gasoline engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,890 to Wentworth, Jr. discloses an ion vapor generator device for producing negatively charged ions from a liquid comprising water for enhancement of combustion processes.
German Patent 258215 to Wenige et al. discloses a method and apparatus for aerating waste water and streams of material that consume oxygen by compressing the liquid so the air globules are compressed to microbubbles and then dispersing the microbubbles at the circumference of a rotary body.
During the 1970's, when the inventor ran a gravel pit mining business, the inventor unsuccessfully experimented with various devices that injected gasoline fumes at the carburetor of a gasoline engine for combustion or, in turbocharged gasoline engines, injected those fumes into the turbocharger. In the 1970's, the inventor installed experimental devices on normally aspirated (without turbochargers or superchargers) diesel vehicles that injected diesel fuel fumes through a 1 inch (approximately 2.5 centimeters) tube into the center of the intake manifold of an in line 6 cylinder engine. These devices did not substantially increase fuel efficiency. In the 1970's, the inventor also unsuccessfully experimented with injecting diesel fuel fumes into air flowing into the turbocharger fan of a turbocharged diesel engine from a single 1/2 inch (approximately 1.3 centimeters) diameter tube with an outlet end spaced approximately 3 inches (approximately 7.8 centimeters) away from the turbocharger fan. This experiment also was unsuccessful. None of these devices aerated or heated the gasoline or diesel fuel, or used a pump to pump fuel fumes through fume injectors. These devices were installed only on vehicles in the inventor's own fleet, and were removed from those vehicles before the vehicles were sold when that business was closed.
Most of the above references relate to gasoline fuel or other liquid fuels containing a high proportion of volatile petrochemical ingredients. Further, several references teach that gasses, including air, should be removed from a diesel fuel before combustion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,848 to Duprez discloses a diesel fuel control apparatus and system that converts heated excess fuel having air entrained therein to heated fuel without air to mix with fuel flowing from the fuel tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,820 to Haynes discloses an engine fuel conditioner and monitor that degases fuel by atmospheric venting through a hydrostatic liquid column.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,554 to Ariga et al. discloses a fuel feed system that bleeds air from fuel having air bubbles entrained therein.